I Married Joan: Classic TV Collection No. 2

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All Rise...

Judge George Hatch traveled 50 years back in time to call your attention to a highly underrated comedienne. He guarantees you'll have a ball, and it ain't named Lucy.

The Charge

"I married Joan What a girl, what a whirl, what a life, Oh,
I married Joan What a fine loving bride, what a wife, Being gay all
day she keeps my heart laughing, Never known where her brain has flown, To each his own, Can't deny that's why I married
Joan!"—Theme song

The Case

Between 1935 and 1952, Joan Davis starred in almost 50 low-budget comedies
and was one of the most sought-after actresses in Hollywood. Most people
remember her hilarious performance as Camille Brewster, the professional radio
screamer in Hold That Ghost (1941) in which she co-starred with Abbott
and Costello. The scene in which the horrified Camille and Ferdie watch a moving
candle is one of the funniest ever filmed, and Davis is a perfect foil for
Costello, matching him shtick for shtick.

Joan Davis started her career as a child star in vaudeville, where she
perfected her comic timing and physical routines. Her first film role was in a
musical/comedy/western short for Mack Sennett titled Way Up Thar, and she
was immediately offered a contract by RKO. But she was disappointed with the bit
parts she was assigned and the equally low billing in the credits. In 1937, she
moved to 20th Century Fox and was rewarded with co-starring roles alongside big
box-office names like Dick Powell, Alice Faye, Tyrone Power, Shirley Temple, and
Ginger Rogers.

In the 1940s, she tackled radio and became a regular on The Rudy Vallee
Show, then went on to star in a radio show of her own. When television began
to capture the public's attention, she started her own production company and
developed the sitcom I Married Joan, in which played Joan Stevens, the
scatterbrained wife of Judge Bradley Stevens (Jim Backus, Rebel Without a Cause, Gilligan's
Island).

Sure, Davis was following Lucille Ball's lead. Ball had started her own
company, Desilu, a year earlier and produced the long-running hit I Love
Lucy, a series that is rumored to be playing in syndication 24/7 somewhere
on the planet Earth. Sadly, Joan Davis is often referred to as "The poor
man's Lucy." But the 12 episodes included VCI Home Video's I Married
Joan: Classic TV Collection No. 2 should disavow any claims that the
underrated and gifted Davis was the lesser comedienne.

The plots may seem stale by today's standards only because they became
sitcom staples during the 1960s and many of them are still being used today.
Watch any episode of I Married Joan, and you're guaranteed to conjure up
similar situations in shows from Laverne and Shirley to Two and a Half
Men. And that's only on the major networks.

The 12 episodes included in I Married Joan: Classic TV Collection No.
2 are as follows.

While the show varied in quality, often suffering from downright bad writing
and cheesy-looking sets, I Married Joan will still make you laugh.
Slapstick and outrageously improbable imbroglios ruled in the early 1950s.
Actors walk into walls, and are not above wearing lampshades on their heads for
an expected, albeit cheap, chuckle. Hackneyed jokes pop up on a regular basis.
"That Mabel told me my stockings were wrinkled, and I wasn't even wearing
any!" I remember stand-up comedian, Henny Youngman, using that as a
one-liner on the old Ed Sullivan Show at least a half-dozen times. And,
if I'm not mistaken, Groucho may have said it in one of the Marx Brothers
classics of the 1930s.

Joan Davis's physical expertise is most evident in "Acrobats,"
where she gets caught in the titular act. Davis ends up sitting on the feet of
one of the tumblers and is spun is circles, then tossed across stage to a
companion who does the same. There was no stand-in used; this was Davis at her
most dexterous, willing to do anything to captivate her audience.

Jim Backus is also excellent as Joan's husband, the dignified and put-upon
Judge Bradley Stevens. He's perfect as the frustrated straight man and the
exasperated butt of Joan's zany antics. Beverly Wills, Davis's real-life
daughter, plays her sister in many episodes, and Sheila Bromley and Geraldine
Carr make regular appearances as Joan's neighbors, Janet and Mabel.

Although they claim the episodes have been digitally remastered, I found VCI
Home Video's transfers a bit on the weak side, especially when compared to their
release of another 1950s classic TV show, My Little Margie. There's a lot
of speckling, and a few black vertical lines appear in almost every episode.
Actually the best transfers of old shows I've seen from the same period are from
Shanachie's The Abbott and Costello Show. These episodes were transferred
from original 35mm masters and look like they were shot just last week.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, however, sounds excellent. The only Extras are
short biographies of both Davis and Backus, and some promos for VCI's other
classic TV shows, including My Little Margie. Hint, hint.

In October, Bearmanor Media is publishing a long-awaited biography, Hold
That Joan—The Life, Laughs and Films of Joan Davis by Ben Ohmart. I've
provided a link under Accomplices. It looks to be a must for fans of this
brilliant and genuinely funny actress.

Joan Davis was forced to live in the shadow of Lucille Ball in the early
days of television's Golden Age. I think her sardonic humor and homages to
classic vaudeville and burlesque routines gave her an edge over Lucy. In spite
of the technical flaws, VCI's I Married Joan: Classic TV Collection No. 2
is an excellent introduction to an actress and TV show that, unfortunately, has
been relegated to near-obscurity.

Not guilty! Keep the laughs comin', Joanie!

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